A Better Way
Is there a better way to gain an understanding of the architecture of a communication protocol
than reading 100's of pages of technical text?
Yes! A model created in ProtoCollum™ gives an engineer insight into the protocol itself;
what messages are passed, what parameters are sent, what state conditions trigger a message, etc.
insight n. The capacity to descern the true nature of a situation. An elucidating glimpse.
Comprehension of the protocol architecture is accelerated by presenting the description in a graphical
message-passing format. ProtoCollum also provides the ability to sandbox the actual
behavior of the protocol description on an interactive Message Sequence Chart (a.k.a. ladder diagram).
This type of model insight is quite different from the typical protocol
modeling which seeks to create a fast executeable which can be used for simulation in order to gather
statistics, do packet checking, or other functions. The decision making for those protocol models is
buried within the code and very little observability is provided.
Available Protocol Models
The protocol models currently available from Bellum Software are
listed below. More information about each model can be found by following the links on the
sidebar to the left.
802.11 Wireless LAN (Peer-to-Peer)
A simulation model of the IEEE 802.11 Specification 1999 Edition, covering all nine architecture
services at a peer to peer (intra-layer) level of abstraction. Excellent starting point for
learning 802.11 behavior, with messages modeled as being passed conceptually within the
Data Link layer.
The expected users of this 802.11 model are hardware and software engineers
seeking a better understanding of the 802.11 specification while designing wireless components,
doing network performance analysis and tuning, and developing network diagnostic and measurement tools.
Other users of this model are expected to be engineers working on the next versions of 802, including 802.16,
for which this Bellum model would be an ideal starting point.
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